Which style of journalism do you prefer?

I prefer the Gawker/Valley/Gizmodo kind. Slay all the sacred horses! I liked the CES stunt Gizmodo did in 2008, when it used TV-B-Gone clickers to shut off TVs on display, mocking fawning, lazy people aka journalists who sit at the feet of gadget manufacturers.

This goes against the normal style of functioning of the media-industrial complex, where each feeds off each other. Apple, in this case is famous for cultivating rumors about products and updates. Media outlets plot in agreement, hoping to get some exclusive bite or benefit from pageviews from gadget freaks.

When was the last time you found real technology insight from any mainstream media outlet? Glorified, albeit paid brochures, is what they actually are.

A typical media outlet, Techcrunch is understandably upset at Valleywag's dare and says it might face legal action from Apple.

Let us shake it up. Somebody give me a million dollars. Am going to set up a bounty to catch our rulers 'in the act'

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Why do people love Google?

Google controls 70 per cent of the search market, in an era when our life revolves around the 'Search Box' and when successful internet executives, like the Stepford Princess Marissa Mayer, are considered facile thought leaders, propounding theories and dictums at will, like a new-age Thoreau. Did you read her latest gem where she says "It is not what you know, it's what you can find out." Deep.

During the rise of the computers, Microsoft rose roughshod over everything else, swatting competitors like flies, bribing governments and big business bean-counters alike, always deflecting cries of monopolistic behavior by pointing fingers at the software thieves.

Faced with a privacy nightmare in a cloud computing world, why then, do we love Google?

This thread gives the answer, sort of speaking for the internet itself,

Yes, they are the new Microsoft. But one that doesn't charge you for their services. That's why we love them. And they're savvy.Not only that, but it doesn't lock people in their proprietary office and protocols.

* Tired of Gmail? export it to imap* Tired of Google Calendar? export it to ical* Tired of Google Docs? export it to open office, ms office, html or even plain text

And,

People use google because they make great software and stay with them for the same reason. People stay with MS because they are locked in.